Collectors cleared of any links to Nazis

THE art collectors whose artworks and artefacts made up Limerick’s prestigious Hunt Museum were yesterday cleared of any links to Nazi Germany.

An exhaustive Royal Irish Academy investigation began when allegations surfaced that the city centre museum contained treasure looted in World War II.

The probe also focused on allegations that the collectors, the late John Hunt Snr and his late wife Gertrude Hunt, had links to Nazi art dealers and had been involved in spying.

The Hunt collection, with an estimated value of €70 million, is one of the world’s largest private collections of art and artefacts and was donated to the State by the family.

Two years ago an independent inquiry was set up after France’s Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which tracks down former Nazis, wrote to President Mary McAleese alleging the late couple had links to Nazi art dealers.

But yesterday an exhaustive report said: “Presently available information and research provides no proof whatsoever that the Hunts were Nazis, that they were involved in any kind of espionage, or that they were traffickers in looted art.”

www.ria.ie